The most important conference the world has ever seen

The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 from 7th to 18th December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark has been described as the most important conference ever held.

It is held because most of the world’s governments believe that climate change is a threat to human society and also the natural world.

It aims to strike a deal on major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Major discussion topics:

- Targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, especially so by developed countries
- Financial support to achieve this by developing countries
- A “carbon trading scheme” which is hoped to end the destruction of the world’s forests by 2030.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen described it as an “opportunity the world cannot afford to miss”.

There are delegates from 192 countries, with about world 100 leaders expected to attend, including US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

An unprecedented number of countries have pledged emissions cuts.

Any agreement there is intended to supplant the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.

56 newspapers in 45 countries published the same report on the opening day of the conference, in 20 languages.

Source
The BBC, 7 Dec 2009

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